Making great videos with a laptop webcam

There are two factors to webcam videos: 1) the camera itself, and 2) the video processing software. While the camera might be decent, most video chatting software really cuts down on quality to ensure smooth video and audio transmission, because people are generally more annoyed by choppy video than high quality video. This doesn't answer your question, because built-in laptop webcams vary quite a bit. What model laptop are you using, if you don't know the specs of the camera itself? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/720p, and http://www.convergencecti.com/drupal/understanding, HD cameras are referenced as 720p (1MP) and 1080p (2MP), which is pretty low image resolution if you're comparing your laptop camera to digital cameras, even those built into modern smart phones.

I don't actually have a laptop right now. I'm planning on purchasing a new one based on what has the best integrated camera.

Regarding the quality: I've found 720p to be ok for video. I have heard that when it comes to megapixels, more is not always better. Case in point: most DSLR cameras have less megapixels than the point-and-shoot digital cameras, yet the DSLR with only 4 megapixels will take better pictures than the compact camera with 30 megapixels every time. It has to do with sensor size and the lenses and all of that. At any rate, since my videos are played on computers through youtube, most aren't even played at the full 720p. I'm a lot more concerned with clarity and image quality than jumping up to full 1080p HD, since, again, not all 1080p is made the same. My phone can take 1080p video, but it's very low quality.

The webcam built into a laptop will have a tiny sensor just like the camera in your phone, and for the same reasons (cost and size constraints). That's a real limiting factor in quality. On the other hand, you can get an external USB web cam that can clip onto the top of your monitor; I believe some of those have much higher quality sensors. Would that still be an improvement for you, or does it present the same problems as your current camera?

I would not recommend buying a laptop based on the quality of its integrated webcam, use that one just for actual video chatting and use an external USB camera instead for recorded videos. I've been http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB0DxKDHRKE& thehttp://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B006JH8T3S/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ webcam for some time now and it works well for recording video of a similar quality to what you've demonstrated. The video I linked to has some audio sync issues due to the live stream capture software used, not the quality of the camera. For the best audio quality you're also going to need a separate USB microphone. I use http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000PTF0E2/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/. You will be disappointed if you attempt to work around the inadequacies of the built-in webcam and microphone on most computers.

It doesn't necessarily need to be built into the computer. Having the webcam be external isn't too much of an additional hassle. It would still allow me to record directly onto the computer, which is what I'm going for.

Many digital cameras can also be http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Digital-Camera-As-a-Web-Cam. Search the web to see if it's possible with the camera you already have...

mbrubeck, that would be awesome, actually. I'm going to look into that.